Newsworks, the marketing body for the UK’s national news publishers, in partnership with New Digital Age, raised laughs (and awareness) in Manchester last week with a live comedy quiz show for the media industry.
Designed to mark the launch of new research from Newsworks, ‘Could We Lie To You?’ saw a panel of journalists (Claie Wilson, assistant editor, Metro; Josh Halliday, northern correspondent, The Guardian; and Charlotte Ivers, columnist, The Sunday Times and political correspondent, Times Radio) face a series of True/False and ‘missing words’ rounds.
TikTok comedy star and marketing industry commentator Rob Mayhew performed the role of quiz host, ensuring that the laughs kept flowing alongside the food and drink for the packed audience of publisher and media agency execs.
Newsworks Chief Executive Jo Allan, who delivered the introduction to the event, commented: “We wanted a fun and unique way to launch our latest research report – Fake Not Fact: The Power of News Brands – which highlights the legacy of trust that consumers of all ages still feel towards established news providers over online media. Together with NDA, we devised a quiz format based around the concept of ‘fake news’ to get our message across in an entertaining way.
“Huge thanks to the brave journalists who volunteered to take part and to Rob Mayhew for being such a hilarious host on the night. The Manchester audience had such a great time that we are now planning to hold a similar event in London.”
NDA editor Justin Pearse added: “We helped Newsworks put on a show that was completely different from what you’d normally expect for a research launch. It was such a special night and I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much before at an industry event, and I wasn’t the only one – the audience were thoroughly entertained, and engaged, from start to finish.”
The latest Newsworks research found 79% of UK consumers are concerned about fake news, while only a quarter surveyed feel confident in their own ability to spot it. More than half (54%) believe that they have been tricked into believing news that later turned out to be fake.
When shown genuine news headlines on news brand sites compared to genuine news headlines on non-news brands sites, people were almost 50% more likely to believe the headlines on the news brand sites. As a result, the perceived quality of brands is 1.6x higher when consumers see them advertised in a news brand versus a non-news brand.
You can read the full research report here.
